Canadian dollar steady, US index futures down ahead of North American open

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped below the 14,000 support level for the first time in nearly a month, down 194 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 13,842 in mid-morning trading.

New York markets were also solidly in the red, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 268.05 points to 17,080.68 on top of a 162-point decline Wednesday, putting the widely watched index four per cent below where it started the year.

The main TSX index has lost around 10 per cent of its value in the previous year. North American commodity carloads fell 5.8 percent in the week ended August 15, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report.

“There is a risk now that we see the selloff accelerate”, Nathan Griffiths, a senior emerging-market equities manager who helps oversee $1.2 billion at NN Investment Partners in The Hague, said by e-mail. Concerns over a hard landing in China, and apprehension about an interest rate hike in the U.S. has dampened investor sentiment. Agnico Eagle Mines also gained 7.6 percent.

Cieszynski said that the day-to-day volatility in the Chinese stock market is only a concern for Canadian investors if it heralds a slowdown in China’s economy and its voracious appetite for resources.

Canada’s benchmark stock index hit an eight-month low Thursday on concerns about slowing global economic growth and low oil prices.

The benchmark measure is stuck in the tightest trading range since 1927, down 3.5 percent from a record reached in May. As the earnings season winds down, about 74 percent of the S&P 500 members that have reported so far beat profit estimates, while 49 percent topped sales projections. (SU.TO) dropped 2.67 percent. The energy and financial sectors, which together account for about half of the weight of the index, get much of the blame.

The Capped Information Technology Index declined 1.89 percent, as BlackBerry Limited (BB.TO) slipped 1.73 percent.

Tesla Motors Inc. retreated 1 percent after the electric- vehicle company said the underwriters of its secondary stock sale exercised their option for additional shares.

NetApp rose 5.3 per cent to $31.36 after the data storage equipment maker’s results beat expectations.